This invention relates to liquid purifying apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus for rapidly and economically evaporating and then condensing a liquid in a novel and unique manner.
There has been developed a liquid purification system which is economical in operation and highly efficient. One such system employs an evaporator unit of the type disclosed in Robert I. Zalles U.S. Pat. No. 3,505,175 granted Apr. 7, 1970 and a condenser unit of the type disclosed in Robert I. Zalles U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,821 granted Aug. 29, 1972. The evaporator and condenser units utilize layers of fibrous material having a multiplicity of liquid absorbent fibers. The liquid to be purified is spread over the fibers of the evaporator unit to form extremely thin liquid films, illustratively only a few molecules in thickness, which are rapidly evaporated by a stream of air or other gaseous fluid. The resulting vapor is condensed in the condenser unit as a substantially pure liquid.
Heretofore, in liquid purifying apparatus including those of the foregoing type, difficulties were encountered in maintaining the individual fibers of the absorbent material in a sufficiently moist condition to operate the apparatus at maximum capacity. In addition, and this has been of special moment in prior apparatus of the type in which the gaseous fluid passed through the material at right angles to the fluid flow path, problems were encountered in making sure that the rate of flow of the gas over the individual fibers was sufficiently high to process the liquid in large quantities. A still further disadvantage of many prior liquid purification systems was their inability to operate economically and efficiently on a continuous day-in and day-out basis.